The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-30
THE DEAD-ALIVE.
WHY BURIED PEOPLE DO NOT
RECOVER CONSCIOUSNESS.
Freezing Frogs but Not Men-Dr.
Hammond Explains the Mys-
tories Of Syncope-Brains
in Human Spines.


in Human Spines.
"There is no excuse for any one being
buried alive" said DR.. w. A. Hammond,
to New York Herald reporter. "No,"
he continued; ''there is no excuse for it.
The tests of death have been brought
down to such nice point that any COM
petent physician would have no difficulty
in accurately determining whether or not
death had taken place"
"Does decomposition always set in
after dcath2"
"Invariably, provided the body is not
frozen. Of course you can freeze it and
keep it for years before it will decom-
pose, just as fish are kept frozen for
market. The salmon that you eat now
were caught last spring and have been
kept frozen ever since. They arc just as
good"
"Do you imagine that there is any
foundation to the belief of many that
people are sometimes buried alive3"
ooh, I have no doubt of it. I have
known of its being done, but it is not by
any means of frequent occurrence-not
nearly so frequent as many people imag-
sine. The physician is entirely to blame
when it does occur. The fact that bodies
have been found turned over in the
cofins leads people to believe that they
were buried alive. But that's not so. 1t
is probably the work of the gases coming
from the body. Pent up in coffin they
become very powerful, and it is almost
singular that they do not move bodies
around more than they do"
"Then you don't take any stock in the
stories of men who come to life under
the ground, of their terrible struggles to
get free and their horrible death at last9"
''That's all bosh. Pope wrote of
graveyards trembling with the struggles
, of the buried alive. That's all bosh, too.
When people are buried alive, as they
certainly have been, they never wake up
to know it. When in trance state their
vitality must be so weak that when they
begin to regain consciousness and to at
tempt to breathe they die of suffocation
Immediately, and never know that they
came to life again. Buried for dead, they
practically are dead"
"Is it possible to freeze human being
up for any length of time. and then re-
store consciousness2"
sNo; not with human being. It can
be done with some of the lower order of
animals. Frogs are the highest grade to
which it can be carried successfully"
"Why can't it be done to men2"
'sBecause 10 natter how warm or cold
the atmosphere is, the temperature Of a
human being in good health is always
ninety-eight degrees in life. Reduce
that, temperature to the freezing point
and it would kill the person. Now, the
temperature of frog is always the same
as the surrounding air. If the mercury
goes up to 11O degrees the frogs temper
ature goes up there too, without doing
him any harm. In the same way it will
20 down to zero and the frog will not
mind it. have frozen frog solid in a
block of ice, and after some time thawed
him out, and he would jump all around
the room. A frog is very hard to kill.
You can take his heart out and he will
still live. Cut his head off, tickle him on
one side with straw, and he will draw
up the leg on that side and push the straw
away"
''Is that merely mechanical actionw
"No, it's because a frogs brains are
not all in his head; some them are in
his spinal column, and it is the latter
that directs his legs. For that matter,
I believe, the brains of human being
are not all in the head, either. A girl
plays the piano and carries on a conver-
sation st the same time. The brains in
her spine govern the action of her hands
and the brains in her head allow her to
talk"
"Is it possible for men to 60 into
frances that could be mistaken for death2"
"Yes; it is quite certain that an ap-
parent cessation of all the vital func-
tions may take place without the entire
loss of vitality which would leave the
organism in the condition of dead body
to be speedily disinterred by the opera
tion of chemical or physical agencies.
The state of syncope is at times 30 COM
plete that the hearts action cannot be
perceived nor any respiratory movements
be observed, all power of movement being
for the time abolished, and yet recovery
has spontaneously taken place, which
could scarcely be the case if all vital
action had been suspended. The best
authenticated case of this kind is that of
Colonel Townsend, that occurred in the
early part of this century, and of which
the world has about lost sight. "It is
described by DR.. George Cheyne, who
was an eye witness. He says that the
Colonel possessed the remarkable faculty
of throwing himself in trance at pleas
ure. The heart ceased apparently to throb
at his bidding; respiration seemed at an
end. His whole frame assumed the icy
chill and rigidity of death, while his feat
ures became colorless and ghastly and
his eyes fixed and glazed. Even his mind
ceased to manifest itself, for during the
trance it was willingly as devoid of con-
sciousness as his body of animation. A
polished mirror held before his mouth
was not in the least dimmed. The physi-
clans were about leaving him for dead,
when there were signs of returning ami.
nation. He came back slowly to perfect
life again after being in the trance state
for half an hour.
"Among the Indian fakirs this SINH.
lating of death is by no means of rare oc-
currcnce. There was one case reported
by the English officers in which faki,
was buried in an underground cell for six
weeks, and O strict guard kept mean.